Shannon Adcock’s name is absent from Mayor Steve Chirico’s list of nominees to various city boards and commissions that will come up for a vote by the Naperville City Council on Tuesday but a former councilman is expected to be appointed to the library board.
“I’m not going to put someone forward (for nomination) if I don’t already know that they’re not going to be supported. That’s not the purpose of doing that,” Chirico said.
A letter and email writing campaign and an online petition was launched before the May 3 council meeting asking Chirico reconsider nominating Adcock to the Special Events and Cultural Amenities Commission and former Naperville City Councilman Kevin Coyne to the Naperville Public Library Board.
While the mayor’s nominations weren’t listed on the May 3 agenda, more than a dozen people spoke against the appointments of Adcock and Coyne at the last council meeting.
Many questioned Adcock’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion and those of Awake Illinois, the advocacy group she founded a year ago.
Although Coyne came under scrutiny for his association with Adcock, Coyne was nominated by the mayor for his first term on the library board.
Chirico said he doesn’t want to discourage anybody from volunteering or getting the opportunity to make a positive contribution to a board or commission.
“I think they should be given an opportunity to do that,” Chirico said. “But I think at this point, at least, it doesn’t look like she’s moving forward.”
If the council changes at some point, perhaps there will be a different group of people with different feelings, he said.
Adcock said she talked to the mayor about waiting until the fervor over her nomination dies down.
“I think he and the council are worried about this mob attack,” she said of the campaign to drop her from consideration.
She plans to support Coyne and his nomination, she said, and won’t give up working to improve Naperville.
“I’m keeping the faith,” she said.
Besides Coyne, the only other first-term nomination on the mayor’s list is Whitney Robbins to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Robbins was appointed to fill a vacancy on the commission in 2019 and completed the remainder of the unexpired term.
Because that term was partial, Robbins is eligible to serve two complete three-year terms.
The rest of the 11 nominations listed for a vote Tuesday are reappointments.
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